Capital punishment is a very touchy subject for most people. There are many pros and cons to it; I’m going to talk about the pros. A lot of people worry about the fact that we could possibly be putting an “innocent person” to death, but the fact that it takes sometimes 20+ YEARS and MANY appeals are made through different courts, and different jurors all review the case and then if they all decide that this person deserves to be put to death then it seems highly unlikely that they are innocent. Another reason people have a hard time dealing with the death penalty is because people have a hard time dealing with death all together, it’s a huge and difficult decision, but the United States does NOT put nearly as many murderers to death as the murders do themselves. According to some statistics I found from 1998-2008 the United States put 775 murders to death and in that same time those murderers killed 1591 innocent people. (Not including people that those murders could have killed and got away with.) That means there are at least twice as many innocent victims than murders being put to death. So people may start to feel remorseful towards that murder but that murder was not remorseful to his/her victims. As for the costs of the death penalty it is true that it costs more per year to use the death penalty because of all the court dates and appeals, BUT to keep that murderer alive for sometimes 40 or 50 years (depending on their age) will ultimately be more expensive in the long run.
Cost Statics:
Cost of Life Without Parole: Cases
Equivalent To Death Penalty Cases
1. $34,200/year (1) for 50 years (2), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$75,000 (4) for trial & appeals = $3.01 million
2. Same, except 3% (3) = $4.04 million
3. Same, except 4% (3) = $5.53 million
Cost of Death Penalty Cases
$60,000/year (1) for 6 years (5), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$1.5 million (4) for trial & appeals = $1.88 million
Same, except 3% (3) = $1.89 million
Same, except 4% (3) = $1.91 million
This is a very touchy subject, and because of the info in your blog, that it takes 20+ years to come to a convition of the death penalty, puts me more for it than against it. It is a very interesting subject. Im always open to new information for the death penalty being right or wrong.
ReplyDelete